Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 124 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studion Ghibli
Year Produced: 1986
The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!
This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to. I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.
What's still to come are:
Wednesday - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Thursday - Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Friday - Porco Rosso (1992)
Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa yesterday, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.
Set in (again, no name) what appears to be a coal or other fuel mining town, Laputa is a magical story about a young girl... actually, I don't have any idea how old the two main characters are. About 12?
This is Sheeta, the main character. You try and guess her age!
She is being held captive by a group of strange, suit-wearing men... gentlemen (not), for reasons unknown (I love that word... that phrase). Suddenly, from out of the clouds comes...
Mutant... dragonfly things.
Well, you explain it! I don't think that this could work, even in fantasy... especially not with two people riding...
PIRATES!!
And guess what, they've come for Sheeta (of course. If you can't predict these kinds of things yet, you need to leave. I actually think that a story about the hero's friend would be awesome. Yeah, probably slightly boring, but it'd sure as hell be different). Actually, they didn't come after her, but rather the jewel that she is carrying.
Doom.
So Sheeta brains her guard and escapes through the window. She's just forgotten one vital thing...
Oh dear...
The fact that she's really high up. She's above the clouds, for God's sake. Looking back on it, she probably regrets her choice to brave the outside of the ship, but then again, hindsight is 20x20.
Sheeta manages to crawl along the hull of the ship until she gets to the window in the above picture... then she slips and falls.
If she died, then that would make it impossible to make the joke that I always do, but since she didn't, and I'm getting tired or being predictable, I'll just say this.
She flies away...
...
... no, seriously! I'm not the boy who cried wolf, dammit! She actually flew... not away, but she sure as hell floated!
Woah...
She floated down to the surface of Earth... or wherever, where she is spotted and then "caught" by this guy, Pazu. The guy from Ghost in the Shell SAC before he grew up. Not.
Pazu...
"Catch".
Actually, in all fairness, that's not what happened. This is what it looked like (since it is a freaking screen-shot).
Yes, girls are heavier than they look (not intended to be a derogatory remark of any kind). I can attest that you are not one of those heroes out of any number of B action films. Neither are those heroes, actually, if you look, they're straining.
Anyway, now that everybody's after them, they've got to get away... naturally.
Okay, I watched this twice, and I have to say that I liked it a lot better the second time. It had one of the best scenes in it, involving idiotic American-Style fighting! No spins or twirls or anything, just punch as hard as you can. It's pretty awesome... actually the whole scene was awesome...
POP YOUR BUTTONS, BOSS!!
WOOT!!
The characters were fun and awesome, and nobody that you cared about died, which was cool. By the way, the above two characters (especially the second one) are among my top-ten favorites right now.
The music must have been good for the show because I don't remember it at all! If I had particularly liked it though, it would have stuck in my memory. I do get the feeling that it was a lot of light, probably woodwind instruments.
The music must have been good for the show because I don't remember it at all! If I had particularly liked it though, it would have stuck in my memory. I do get the feeling that it was a lot of light, probably woodwind instruments.
Both the English and the Japanese were good, and Mark Hamill makes a comeback as the bad guy. What's going on there, man? Am I going to see him in My Neighbor Totoro too?
Mr. Skywalker?
Check it out, it's good fun. "Clean" if that's the right word, though I'm not too thrilled about the term "Good, clean fun".
